Marathon veers from CDC guidelines
With COVID-19 case numbers spiking both nationally and locally, the Marathon Board of Education last week Wednesday voted not to realign its quarantine policy with new Center for Disease Control (CDC) guidelines that allow for a return to school five days from an onset of symptoms if the ill individual no longer has symptoms and wears a mask. The board also voted that athome rapid tests would be accepted as proof someone is no longer positive for the disease. Board members agreed to revisit the COVID- 19 situation next month. The current school policy is to require a 10-day quarantine for a student or staff member who tests positive for the coronavirus.
School board member Paula Vesely argued that she saw no need to have students return to school earlier, especially when there wasn’t sufficient staff able to make sure that people recovering from COVID-19 were wearing masks.
“If the thing isn’t broke, don’t fix it,” she said. “I don’t feel we need to jump on any bandwagon. It puts so much on you guys [school staff] that’s not necessary.”
Part of a proposed change in the quarantine protocol would have allowed students with COVID-19 symptoms to return to school 24 hours after a negative test and symptoms subside.
Board members, however, recognized that rapid COVID-19 tests were nearly impossible to find and that many people find themselves in limbo while they await test results to come back from laboratories.
School board president Jodi De-Broux said she would allow people to use Point of Care rapid tests administered at home as a way for students to return to school earlier, if desired. Other board members agreed.
District administrator Rick Parks said many schools in the region were wrestling over what to do with the CDC recommendations given the dramatic increase in COVID-19 cases, the lack of test kits and concern over Health Protection and Promotion Act (HPPA) protections for students and staff.
Parks said school staff would be hard-pressed to enforce a mask mandate on students because that would violate their HPPA privacy rights. Otherwise, he agreed, the school does not have staff to enforce a mask requirement.
“We can’t follow people around all day,” he said. “We don’t have the staff.”
High school principal David Beranek told board members he would implement any policy chosen by the board, but that he feared that shortening up the quarantine period would provide an “opportunity for more ill people in the building” that could jeopardize the health of some fragile and immunocompromised students and staff.
Ryan McCain, principal at Marathon Area Elementary School (MAES) and Marathon Venture Academy (MVA), said he worried about adopting a policy that relied on testing when obtaining tests was currently “a struggle.”
School board members asked school secretaries Jody Seubert and Jackie Hanke about the number of students who were absent from school due to illness. Both staff members said that around 10 percent of students did not attend school because of sickness. They said this figure included both students with COVID-19 and others with a variety of colds and flu.
It was reported that Marathon Public Schools at one point had 2.9 percent of students with confirmed cases of COVID- 19. There is a three percent trigger for the school board to reconsider masking or virtual education.
Board members struggled with the quarantine issue and admitted that it was difficult to know what to do.
“We are not the experts,” said board member Lia Klumpyan. “The experts don’t have the answers. Our goal is to keep the kids in school as much as possible.”
In other school board business: n Teacher Tera Fieri announced MAES has been granted “sprout” status in a Green and Healthy Schools Wisconsin project that will emphasize recycling, composting, waste reduction and outdoor education.
n Principal McCain said MAES/ MVA has applied to be one of seven schools in an Expeditionary Learning pilot project to be credentialed. The process, he said, would require the schools deliver a “portfolio” of accomplishments.
n Board members voted to post the job of summer school principal rather than have it as an added duty for the district’s elementary school principal. The approximate cost of the duty will be $4,500, administrator Parks said.
n The board voted to approve having Tuesday, March 8, as a Marathon High School ACT test day for juniors where grades 9, 10 and 12 students will have virtual education. The juniors will start test taking at 8 a.m. and finish up five hours later with a pizza lunch.
High school principal Beranek said junior students would appreciate having quiet in the school while they take their exam.
n Administrator Parks reported on district ESSER funding. The district has already been allocated $90,000 in ESSER I funding and $264,033 in ESSER II funding. The district has been promised $155,000 in ESSER III money. The total comes to $509,033.
Board member Ted Knoeck suggested the district use some of the ESSER money to retain employees with events or tokens of appreciation that will boost staff morale.
n Board members directed administrator Rick Parks to schedule a meeting with the Marathon City Village Board to discuss the impact of proposed housing developments on Marathon Public School enrollment.
“It is imperative we open the lines of communication,” school board president DeBroux said.
n Board members agreed to hold their annual retreat at the Little Lions Child Care Center and get a tour of the new facility.
n Board members hired Kay Pope as a MAES teaching aide.
n District administrator Parks said he has provided Sen. Mary Felzkowski with information about how difficult it is to hire school personnel, including teachers and support staff, during the labor shortage. He said many job postings get only a handful of applicants and some postings get no response at all. Parks said he is having particular difficulty hiring custodial staff.
n Administrator Parks said Little Lions Child Care Center has requested use of MAES as an evacuation site in event of an emergency. He said the town of Hamburg has asked to co-op in an adjacent township for the upcoming Tuesday, Feb. 15, three-way school board primary.
